


And I'll Tear Down The Stars From Your Eyes

by raendown



Series: Super Idiots [2]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-29
Updated: 2019-10-29
Packaged: 2021-01-07 21:35:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 10,218
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21224561
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/raendown/pseuds/raendown
Summary: Five years away is a long time. Finding the spaces he belongs here in the place he once called home was never going to be as easy as just showing up and saying "Hey, sorry I betrayed you all like that, my bad." It's a miracle they even let him come on this mission but how can Tobirama blame them when even he doubts how far they should trust him?





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Kaiyaru](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kaiyaru/gifts).

> Happy birthday to someone who gives so much to others and deserves _so much_ in return. This series was born of your request so it's only right that I finish the next installment in time to celebrate you! :D
> 
> **Important:** This story picks up after [For Want of Reason and Mercy](https://archiveofourown.org/works/15592374) and wastes no time explaining itself so if you haven't read the first one I would recommend reading that before this.

Without taking his eyes off the guards making their rounds Tobirama lifted a hand to gently touch the puffy skin around his right eye, still dark and bruised from the solid hit Touka landed on him a few days earlier. He couldn’t exactly begrudge his cousin her reaction to seeing him again for the first time in five years. Actually he felt like he might have gotten off rather easily, all things considered. Touka had gained quite a fair bit of muscle since the last time he saw her but a single punch in the eye was still pretty far down the list of punishments he knew she was capable of dishing out even if she was one of the few in their ragtag group who never developed powers.

Izuna’s two hour screaming match with his brother over whether or not they could trust him now had also been expected, less violent but no less painful. Not that he and Izuna had ever been great friends, rivals would be more accurate, but the way Madara seemed to hesitate and consider some of his brother’s words had sent lances of deep pain straight through Tobirama’s heart – even despite the fact that he sort of agreed with them too.

He still wasn’t sure how Hashirama convinced the rest of them to let him come along on today’s raid of yet another government facility. Sure, he had a lot of insider information but it was pretty much all vague big picture stuff, nothing about the layout of the place or anything they could use on their rescue mission. Whatever the reason for it he was here now and Tobirama was determined that he would give no one any cause to doubt him from here on out. He’d been partnered with Madara to watch this entrance and like a dutiful soldier he hadn’t once taken his eyes off the guards since they arrived, patiently observing. It had only taken him ten minutes to memorize their stupidly lax patrol patterns but that wasn’t the point.

“Still hurts?” a warm voice asked from just behind his shoulder. Tobirama dropped the hand away from where he was still poking at his face and shrugged.

“Touka’s punches always hurt,” he replied noncommittally.

“Did you want to put some ice on it?”

Breathing deeply to keep a lid on his temper, Tobirama took his eyes off the guards for the first time in favor of turning to glare at Madara’s dumb smug face. “This is absolutely not the time for your terrible jokes.”

Madara snickered behind one hand but thankfully let it slide without any more bad attempts at humor. Or maybe it was just that he had no chance to as they both snapped to attention when a quiet voice spoke through the coms they were wearing in their ears.

_We move in thirty, on my mark._

Tobirama spun his head back around to watch the guards again, mentally berating himself for looking away as he waited for Mito to speak to them again. His brother’s fiancé had perhaps had the most terrifying reaction of them all to seeing him again – in that she’d had no reaction at all. After staring at him wordlessly for somewhat more than a minute she had asked him to take his shoes off before coming in and then proceeded to ignore him for the rest of the week. If she was required to speak to him she would but her voice carried no inflection and it left Tobirama fearful of what would happen when the other shoe finally dropped.

Unclenching the fists he hadn’t even realized he’d made, Tobirama reached for the holster on his right hip and pulled out the tranquilizer gun he’d been given, sighting down the barrel to track one of the guards along his repetitive path.

_In three, two, one – now!_

His finger compressed the trigger at the same time as Madara’s did just beside him. Both of the guards before them fell in perfect sync, crumpling to the pavement for what should be a several hours long nap.

“Now comes the fun part,” Madara said under his breath, something feral and dark in his words.

“You think hurting people is fun?”

“I think getting revenge is fun. These people are trying to kill us.”

“Hashirama seems to think some kind of peace can be made, that we shouldn’t be killing them.”

Both of them rose from behind the cover they’d been crouched in for the last half hour and carefully stepped across the open space, eyes darting in every direction just in case someone else had miraculously escaped their notice.

“What do you think, then?” Madara asked. There was no challenge in his tone but he had to know what those words would sound like.

“I think no one should ever kill another human being _easily_.”

“That wasn’t an opinion.”

“No. It wasn’t. My opinions don’t really matter right now, do they?” Tobirama hefted his tranquilizer gun and held it at the ready in front of him as he stepped through the door of the research facility they were infiltrating. If he wanted to he could use his ice to snuff out lives in a hundred different ways but the fact of the matter was that he truly did not want to. These people believed in the wrong cause and spent their lives doing horrible things but he wasn’t convinced that death was the correct answer to those crimes.

You can’t un-kill someone, after all.

Madara followed behind him and said nothing more on the subject.

The inside of the building was poorly lit but there was enough light to see the letters on the wall and take their bearings, comparing the room numbers around them to the blueprints they had all memorized over the last couple of days. From the door they had just come through there were three directions they could choose to take. Madara pointed down the left hallway and Tobirama nodded, following him two steps behind with his tranquilizer at the ready, muffling his footfalls as best as he could. The new boots they had given him with soft soles were amazing for these infiltration missions when it would be dangerous to their objective to make a big ruckus.

At the end of the hallway they were forced to duck in to a nearby alcove when they noticed a shadow approaching from around the corner. Without any time to find separate places to hide Tobirama pressed himself up against the wall and tried to make himself as small as possible, straining to keep any part of his body from brushing up against Madara’s. Despite his efforts he could tell the chilled air around him was making his partner uncomfortable and he dropped his eyes, ashamed, unable to watch the small tendrils of steam beginning to rise from the backs of Madara's arms.

It was a relief when the shadow passed by without turning down their way and Madara was able to spill out of the alcove, away from the cold dampening his powers. Tobirama gave the flames that began to dance up and down his sleeves a single rueful glance before leading the way forward. Right now was now the time to focus on his own continuing inadequacies.

Fifteen minutes of quietly sneaking around and three more close calls that almost led to being discovered brought them to the small boardroom where they had agreed to meet up with some of the others. There were two meeting points for the two different teams, set as far apart from each other as was necessary for the dual goal of today’s mission. Tobirama was a part of the team whose purpose was to rescue two young supers captured by the government somewhat more than three months ago. He was grateful to have both Madara and his brother in this cell with him, although his stress levels certainly could have done without the presence of Izuna.

His old and unwanted rival glared at him the moment he and Madara slipped in to the room, obviously still unhappy that his brother was left alone with ‘the traitor’, but Tobirama ignored him as best as he could. There just wasn’t time right now for rehashing the argument he’d overheard four separate times in the days they had been planning this raid and honestly he was getting tired of hearing it anyway. Whatever their personal feelings for each other they both had roles to play to ensure the success of this mission. All they needed to do for now was suck it up and stay quiet. They could get in to all the fights they wanted to once they made it back to the base.

“Everyone asleep?” Hashirama asked with a tight grin. Madara whacked him around the head then returned the expression anyway.

“Yeah, no problems on our end. Neither of them had the time to radio for help and the next check in won’t be for at least half an hour.” They shared a fist bump, to which Tobirama rolled his eyes.

“I’m not complaining but the laxness of the security here is worrisome. What if it’s a trap?”

“Relax, frosty boy, they’ve got no idea we’re coming.” Izuna sneered.

Tobirama narrowed his eyes, temper rising even though he‘d only just been lecturing himself about time and place. “It’s Freezeout, _lightning boy_.”

“Electrode,” Izuna snarled back. “I use electricity, not lightning, there’s a difference!” There really wasn’t. And Tobirama really wanted to tell him so since obviously he never passed middle school science class but he was interrupted before he ever had a chance.

“Can we put a pin in that argument? Pick it up when we get back home. Hashirama, what time do we have?” Madara’s tone was reprimanding but Tobirama knew he would be all too happy to sit back and watch the sparks fly between them once they were out of this place. He always had enjoyed a good argument, no matter whether he was participating or egging on both sides.

“The other team should have all met up by now as well and no one has reported any difficulties with keeping their entrance quiet. We’re good to head out.”

Hashirama waited for all of them to nod in understanding before he opened the door and checked the hallway outside. They each followed closely on his heels, Izuna taking up the rear guard with sparks jumping back and forth between his fingers in anticipation. Tobirama would have called him out for being too eager if not for the ice he couldn’t control slowly creeping up his own wrists and making it look as though he were doing the same. He knew very well that Izuna wouldn’t believe any of his protests to the contrary.

After spending so many hours between them studying the blueprints of this compound it was no surprise how little time it took them to navigate their way down in to the bowels of the devil’s domain where their ultimate purpose was being held. Mito whispered an update in their ears as soon as the other team had made in to their second checkpoint, waiting for the right moment for them to launch their part in this operation. It only took another couple of minutes before Tobirama and his team arrived at their secondary location as well: the holdings cells. The guards here were easily brought down while Izuna quietly disabled the surveillance systems as he has been doing periodically, jolting them with just enough electricity to interrupt the signals but not enough to blow them out.

That much Tobirama had been able to help with, at least. It was one of his bigger sources of annoyance over the five years he had worked for the government, how lazy the security officers tended to be, offended more on principal than for any actual care about what happened to the people he worked with. He happened to know the men who watched the cameras in this place and had passed on their habit of ignoring their duty to waste time playing cards or even taking naps.

Izuna used his power to overload the electronic lock system leading to the holding cells and then they were in, creeping along silently and watching the names on every door. Each of these names was another life who had been taken from the happiness and freedoms that should have been theirs and instead brought here to have their soul torn apart piece by piece in the name of ‘genetic purity’. Walking passed so many people in need was hard, of course, but their consciences were eased by the knowledge that they would not be leaving them all here for much longer. Every person in every cell would have an equal chance for freedom by the time their group left. For now, however, their highest priorities were two names in particular whom they had come here looking for.

“How did they even manage to contain a kid who can walk through walls?” Madara wondered aloud, making Tobirama twist his features as memories shot through him like a physical pain.

“Sedatives,” he said shortly. “They would have kept him dosed enough that he can’t concentrate on using his power. If he’s too volatile for injection they put it in the water and food. He has to drink sometime.”

“That’s…man, fuck these assholes.”

“We’re trying to. Although perhaps not in the literal sense.”

Madara covered his nose to muffle his snort of laughter and Tobirama felt a thrill of triumph which he smothered an instant later. This was certainly not an appropriate time for him to be gloating over his slowly growing skills in flirtation. Hashirama’s insistent whisper-yelling caught both of their attention then and when they hurried over it was to see one of the names they were looking for on the clipboard hanging beside an otherwise unmarked door.

_Name: Hatake Kakashi_  
Age: 14  
Height: 145 cm  
Weight: 33.2 kg  
By-name: The Prophet

“Izu, come on!” Madara waved his brother over. Izuna barely had time to overload the door before Hashirama was wrenching it open and dashing inside without a single thought for caution.

“He’s here! Kakashi, wake up! Kaka– whoa! Calm down, it’s just me! It’s me!”

The young boy inside the cell stopped his instinctive feral attacks when the familiar voice registered finally and blinked owlishly at the people crowded in his doorway, tears gathering in his single unbandaged eye, before he flung himself in to Hashirama’s arms with a strangled sob. Clad in nothing but a white medical gown, body dangerously thin underneath, he looked as though he had been locked in here for quite some time. Long enough to grow panicked and attack whoever approached him, at least. 

“H-Hashirama? What are you…doing here?” His voice had the scratchy, guttural quality of someone whose throat must be sore after hours of screaming.

“We came to rescue you two, of course! You didn’t think we’d just leave you guys in here?”

Kakashi hesitated, the words filtering in to his mind slowly. It was clear that he was having trouble believing the reality right there in front of his eyes, likely thinking it too good to be true, but eventually his body gave a violent shudder and he slumped further in to the arms holding him. Hashirama held him tighter with soft, sad eyes and soothing strokes down his too-thin back.

The moment was not to last, however. Long reunions would have to wait for a time and place where they knew they could be safe. Madara skimmed over the information on the clipboard before tossing it aside with an irritated noise and Tobirama knew it was because the charts provided would not say anything actually useful. All confidential information about powers and the experiments each patient might be subject to were kept locked away with limited access. 

“Come on, we’ve got one more stop,” he said. “We can’t afford to dawdle.”

“Right.” Hashirama brushed Kakashi’s hair back a couple of times and then gently disentangled their embrace, passing his hand over the boy’s clothing and encouraging the cotton to grow in to something more modest than a medical gown. Once the garment had sprouted legs and short sleeves he stepped back and led Kakashi out of the cell with a firm grip on the boy’s hand.

Izuna smiled and gripped Kakashi tightly by one shoulder, giving it a friendly shake and then letting go without saying anything. No words could say what they all were feeling. Madara nodded to the boy but he seemed much too anxious to find his younger cousin to waste time on a more emotional display at the moment.

When Kakashi caught sight of Tobirama he recoiled, horrified, and only Hashirama’s grip on his hand stopped the boy from running in to the door jam. Tobirama sighed and glared around at the rest of them until they all looked away without commenting. He made sure to linger behind the rest of them, pointedly ignoring Madara’s lingering gaze as they moved up the hall to another door with another familiar name printed on its own stupid clipboard.

_Name: Uchiha Obito_  
Age: 15  
Height: 139.1 cm  
Weight: 31.7 kg  
By-name: Fade

Still attached to Hashirama by one hand, Kakashi dashed in first to flutter worriedly around Obito’s prone form. Clearly at least somewhat conscious, the young boy was either high as a kite or no longer in possession of all his faculties. Tobirama clenched his fists until the ice building up around his fingers cracked and scattered around feet. He had glanced at the reports for these facilities once but he hadn’t been able to make himself look at the personnel information, skipping over it in favor of devouring the science behind the research their experiments were aimed at, selfish as he had ever been. If he had seen Obito and Kakashi’s names here would he have done something about it? Could he have?

“Is he going to be okay?” Kakashi demanded, clutching Obito’s arm with his free hand. “They never let me see him, not even when they brought us both in for this stupid surgery.” He gave a temperamental toss of his head as though that explained what surgery he was referring to. Then he winced and they realized all at the same time what he meant: their eyes, that both of them had only their left eyes bandaged.

“Kakashi, what did they do to you?” Izuna asked softly.

“Switched us,” he answered with a shudder. “They gave me his eye and put mine in him. And they’ve been putting less drugs in my food so I think maybe they thought…it would change something?”

“Ability transfer,” Tobirama cut in, choking on the words and unable to speak louder than a whisper.

He winced when the whole group of them turned to stare with wide eyes. Only Madara had the courage to clear his throat and ask, “What’s that?”

“It was an experiment with the intention of transferring one person’s super abilities in to the body of another by merging their DNA. I never thought they would attempt such a crude method…” Seeing the way his brother was now staring at him in horror and Kakashi was squirming with discomfort, Tobirama let his words trail off and turned his head away. “You get the idea. We should leave.”

“Yeah. Right!” Hashirama snapped to attention. “Alright, I’ve got Kakashi. Izuna you grab Obito. Madara, take point if you would?”

Letting his brother’s voice wash over them all and fill the dark silence his words had left behind, Tobirama clenched his jaw as he fell back to the rear of the group once more with one hand hovering over his tranquilizer gun. Guarding the fringes was to be his role for the foreseeable future so he may as well get used to it until he had earned himself a place with these people again.

In his ear Mito’s voice responded to her fiancé’s heads up that both of their targets were in custody, murmuring back to them that they had exactly sixty seconds until extraction began. He hurried along on Hashirama’s heels as their little group traveled back the way they had come in, listening for the sounds of approaching feet or opening doors. Surely by now security would know that the facility had been infiltrated but it wasn’t that suspicious for the alarms to have not gone off. If his home were being invaded he wouldn’t want to tip off the intruders that he knew they were there, after all. Right now the six of them were like little rats in a maze trying to run away with the cheese they had stolen.

He very nearly lost his footing when the ground rocked beneath them, muffled thunder booming in the distance.

“Looks like they went with Touka’s idea after all,” Izuna mumbled with a smug note of approval.

“You know how Asuma likes any excuse to blow things up,” Madara shot back quietly over one shoulder. They shared a quick grin.

“He’s so quiet and unassuming until he fights and then _bam_. Suddenly he’s Smog, blower upper of everything in sight!” Izuna’s words were cut off by a second explosion rocking the ground, though he continued to snicker. Again his shoulder Obito groaned and twitched before falling quiet again.

For the most part the way back outside was quiet, though they did encounter a few pockets of trouble along the way. Now, however, there was no need to conceal their presence and stay quiet like they did on the way in. They had what they’d come for. Madara let off a little steam by engulfing the first guard to dash frantically around a corner almost before anyone else even saw him. His screams drew two women out of a nearby room but a wave of Tobirama’s hand lifted a sheet of ice up from the floor, blocking off the hallway entirely and leaving them free to hurry onwards.

_Transports ready at pickup location_.

This time it was Touka speaking to them. Mito couldn’t speak when using her powers, shifting her body in to the form of various wild animals. Hashirama nodded even if his cousin couldn’t see them.

“On our way,” he replied. “ETA five minutes.”

So, of course, that was when the wall right next to them exploded.


	2. Chapter 2

Tobirama spit dust from his tongue and cursed the fact that none of their little resistance organization had the ability to control wind or air. It would have been nice to clear the debris from his vision so he could check on the rest of his group with one quick snap of his eyes. He made do with coating his chest with a shield of ice as makeshift armor and moving forward in to the clouds of smoke and dust, eyes darting left and right and placing every step cautiously. No one was shouting in pain yet, at least, but that didn’t rule out surprise take downs.

Considering the general intelligence level of the grunts who tended to join up with the Organization he would have thought to hear them come screaming in through the hole they just blew in to the wall but apparently they had finally realized the benefits of the element of surprise. Just when he was finally opposed to them rather than working for them, of course. Still, no news was good news at this particular moment so he was happy to take the silence as a boon until proven wrong. He located the other members of his group by listening for their panting breaths and the whispered conversations asking each other why they weren’t being attacked at the moment.

It took hearing Madara grumbling about pointless explosions just to scare people for the memory to finally surface, heaving a sigh and shaking his head with annoyance. As nice as it was to know that none of them were in any immediate danger, he truly did not appreciate the scare.

“We’re fine, no one is coming. Is anyone hurt?” He still kept his voice to a calm volume, not wanting to shout up and down the hallways just in case there really were some stragglers not drawn in by the noise the other team was kicking up.

“How can you know that for sure?” Izuna challenged him through the dust clouds.

“They’re safety measures to protect themselves. In the event of an attack they have charges set to remove evidence of certain things.” Pausing his steps just in time to avoid stepping on the leg that seemed to appear from nowhere, Tobirama squinted to see Hashirama waving cheerfully. As he reached down to help the man up he added, “I honestly thought all of the facilities did away with those measures. It’s not like their activities are illegal anymore. They’re sanctified by the government.”

As soon as Hashirama was on his feet Tobirama dropped his hand, not wanting to cause frostbite by accident even if his brother could heal the damage. Then he moved on to see if anyone else needed help since some of his companions hadn’t answered his question.

Everyone else seemed fine but for Madara, who was struggling to shift two pieces of concrete that had fallen at just the perfect angle to trap his leg without crushing it. Tobirama motioned for him to stay still before raising one hand slowly, calling a very precisely placed spire of ice up from the floor to support the two blocks without brushing against Madara’s skin, lifting them just enough for the man to wriggle his leg free. He caught Madara’s eye as he stumbled to his feet but looked away quickly and hoped the longing he felt wasn’t clear on his face. What he wouldn’t give for the ability to reach out and take the man’s hand, to squeeze those precious fingers and reassure them both that he was okay.

Instead he stepped back quickly and looked around himself as the dust finally began to settle enough that he could see everyone’s faces. Kakashi glared back at him and Tobirama looked away from him too.

“We’re all fine; we should get moving again.” The others nodded at his words but he was already stepping forward to lead the way. If the noise from that explosion drew anyone’s attention he wanted to be out front – not just for defensive purposes but because if anyone was going to get hit in a surprise attack of some sort it might as well be him.

Thankfully they saw no more action on their way out of the building. Touka kept them updated on the distraction situation until they were picking their way over the guards still sleeping by the western entrance, the one he and Madara had come in through. As soon as they had made it passed the property line and in to the vehicles waiting to take them away Hashirama hissed through the coms for his cousin to lead her team out as well.

A moment later the sky was filled with the lashing tail of a massive fox three stories tall. Mito’s ability to take the shape of any animal – and to take any size – had never been more impressive.

“Okami is looking particularly impressive today,” Izuna noted distantly. “Is your woman angry about something, Omni?” Hashirama preened at his question.

“Isn’t she magnificent?” he asked dreamily.

“She’s a beast,” Madara grumbled crossly from the corner of his mouth. “Even when she isn’t wearing fur.”

The only person who heard that, Tobirama bit the inside of his cheek and turned his eyes away from the commotion getting farther and farther away. Mito was indeed terrifying even when she wasn’t utilizing her powers but he knew better than to say so in hearing range of his overprotective brother. He turned his attention across the back of the van instead to observe the way Kakashi was cradling a still groggy Obito across his own thin lap.

When he left years ago these two boys had been little more than children still in their single digits. They were midway through their teens now but it was obvious how deeply they had bonded in the time since he’d seen them last. Kakashi’s entire body trembled with weakness and fatigue but his gaze was steady on the boy leaning against him, fingers unwavering where they were clutching Obito’s hand. He was murmuring something quietly that all the adults had the decency to tune out. Whatever he was saying was not for their ears. Rather than be rude and listen closely Tobirama sat back and closed his eyes, hoping the rocking of the jeep would lull him in to sleep.

It was a futile hope but he kept his eyes stubbornly closed anyway for lack of anywhere to look that wouldn’t hurt his poor heart.

-

After making certain that Tobirama was not watching them anymore Kakashi leaned in close to murmur in Obito’s ear again, whispering his reassurances that everything was going to be okay now. If asked he would have insisted he knew very well that Obito could not hear him in his drugged state but deep inside he felt as though they both might break if he stopped talking. He didn’t even truly have anything important to say, just assurances that he was here and updates on what was happening around them. It simply made him feel better to think he might help Obito feel better too.

Most of the time he’d spent in that hellhole had been under the influence of heavy sedatives, generally unaware of what was happening around him but for the constant impression that this was all wrong, that they weren’t where they were supposed to be, unsafe and afraid yet unable to do more than lay still and drool. The only break in the pattern for a long time had been when men and women in lab coats came to bring him to ‘the bright room’. With a clearer mind now Kakashi was fairly sure that it had been some sort of surgical bay or medical room but at the time, lacking most of his faculties, he had known it only as the bright room.

He called it so after the painfully brilliant lamp that always hung over his face to shine directly in his eyes, reminiscent of the lamp one might fight above a dentist’s chair only twice as painful. Trips to the bright room had always been accompanied by pain and fear and endless prodding with unidentified medical equipment he couldn’t see from where he was strapped down on the table. Even just thinking back to those horrible endless hours had him shuddering and clutching Obito a little tighter to his chest like he could protect them both from the very memory of it.

Kakashi flinched when a hand touched his shoulder, spinning his head to one side only to melt with relief when he saw that it was only Izuna. Staunch, fierce, protective Izuna who never left a comrade behind. There were few people he would feel safer sitting beside.

“You alright, kid?” Izuna asked him.

“I’m not a kid,” he shot back, surprising even himself that such a normal habit as automatic responses could still exist in him. After everything he went through he felt as though there was nothing normal left in him. Izuna’s smile was as comforting as the discovery that he wasn’t completely broken.

“Guess not,” Izuna agreed softly. “Welcome to adulthood, then. It sucks but we stick with it.”

Kakashi was almost more surprised that his face didn’t crack open like dried paper flaking away when his lips split apart in a reluctant smile. It felt strange to smile at all. For all the relief he had felt upon finally seeing Obito again, knowing that he was alive, he hadn’t smiled. He wasn’t even sure that what he’d felt could be described as joy. Everything inside of him was too muddled, confused and foggy and – above all else – tired. All he wanted to do was squirrel the two of them away somewhere safe and sleep for a week.

Proper sleep. Not the drugged sort they were both too used to.

If only his father could see him now so they could reminisce sadly over all the unnecessary ‘just say no’ conversations when he was just starting public school, back before his powers had manifested and the government had set their eyes on him.

Kakashi flinched and shoved all thoughts of his father as far away from himself as he possibly could. He wasn’t sure how long he had actually been locked up inside that facility, years or days or weeks or a thousand generations, but he did know that he hadn’t had time to properly mourn since Sakumo had given his life trying to protect both Kakashi and Obito. As valiant as his efforts had been, they had resulted in nothing but his own death and capture of the two boys he had been trying to save.

“Hey. Don’t go getting lost in your head,” Izuna’s voice dragged him back to reality and Kakashi realized suddenly that he was panting. When he looked up he found the older man smiling at him. “Doesn’t seem like a great place to be right now, huh?”

“Um…is it hot in here or is that just me? I feel hot. Like, I know we have to keep a low profile and all but is there any way we can get some air in here? I just…I need…it’s really hot, Izuna.” Kakashi had spent the last however long he’d been gone locked in a tiny room all on his own. The back of this truck was much more open than he was used to so he didn’t understand why he was panicking all of a sudden, why he couldn’t stop his breath from coming in short gasps until–

Izuna snarled beside him when the temperature dropped without warning. “Back off, snowflake.”

“The labs are kept at low temperatures,” a hollow, half-familiar voice responded. Kakashi was already feeling calmer when he looked up to see Tobirama and Izuna’s gazes locked. “His body is holding on to whatever feels familiar. It’s either this or you lean away from him; you run almost as hot as your brother does.”

Which was saying something considering the constant heat of Madara’s internal organs. His regular temperature would kill any other normal human being yet for him it was an irreversible change in his biology and it was necessary to keep him alive.

Kakashi hesitated and then granted Tobirama a cautious nod of thanks. The last he’d heard, this guy had betrayed them all and ran off to work for the same people who were trying to kill their kind. Maybe that was just the drug-brain talking, though, because the way Madara and Hashirama kept looking at him was not the way someone would look at an enemy. It was very possible that his memories were all jumbled. Or that something else happened while he was in custody. Hopefully he would straighten things out with time – or if not then hopefully he could corner Hashirama for a quiet conversation later. Hashirama was a surprisingly amazing secret keeper, not to mention the least likely out of everyone to laugh at him if all of his questions turned out to be really stupid ones.

Returning his attention to Obito, Kakashi tilted his head and wondered if his friend looked just a little bit more lucid than he had before. Technically he was awake but with the amount of chemicals pumped in to his veins every day that was basically the same as saying that technically he was an apex predator. It didn’t mean much if he couldn’t manage more than lolling his head from side to side in a drunken stupor.

He seemed to be looking around now, though, which could only be a good sign. From experience Kakashi could guess that Obito wasn’t actually taking in any information about what he was seeing, high as a kite and unable to process much, but curiosity in his surroundings was a step up from staring aimlessly in to the void. As a reward he smiled and ran his fingers through the older teen’s greasy hair. First order of business when they reached home should probably be a shower. Then the second would sleep for an entire week straight. Proper good sleep without the terrifying aid of drugs, where they could dream and wake up all under their own power.

“We’ll have Tsunade give him a good look over when we get back, alright?” Hashirama leaned forward to give him a reassuring smile, to which Kakashi hummed gratefully even as the man’s attention was quickly diverted.

“She’s back as well?” Tobirama was asking.

“Mn, in a way. She’s still not doing very well.” Clasping his hands together, Hashirama shook his head sadly.

“After what she saw I can’t be surprised. Dan was a good man. He…did not deserve that end.”

The two brother’s sighed in tandem and everyone present took a moment to remember the warmth of the man they had lost several years back. Kakashi had still been fairly young then but even he had plenty of memories of Dan. In fact, it had been Dan that found him and his father and brought them in to the fold of people like him, people with powers. He could remember thinking on that day that all of their troubles must be over. What a naïve child he had been.

“How many times did she…” Tobirama’s voice trailed off, unable to make himself finish the question. Luckily – but sadly – Hashirama knew what he was getting at.

“At least a dozen times. We’re not sure of the exact number; she sort of disappeared for a while. She’s my cousin and I hate to say it but if anyone deserves the right to end their own life it would be her. And yet…well.”

“Indestructibility sounds like such a blessing,” Tobirama said quietly. “To her, I’m sure it is nothing but a curse.”

Releasing an overly loud huff, Madara sent them both a vile glare. “Can you two lighten up please? We saved lives today. Focus on that.”

Hashirama hurried to apologize and Tobirama settled back in his seat without responding. Kakashi said nothing either but he was just as glad to set aside such a bleak topic. He agreed with Madara, as much of a surprise as that was. It was much nicer to focus on happy thoughts right now. They were free. Obito was going to be okay. Minato would surely be waiting at the base with a warm hug almost as good as any his father could have given him.

They would get to wear underwear again. Sometimes it was the little things.

Of course, even slipping on a nice clean pair of underwear would have to wait until they were back in the compound they all called home, hidden under the shielding power of yet another person he’d been missing.

-

Tobirama watched discreetly the way Kakashi curled around Obito’s limp figure, staring up at the roof of the truck and keeping the two of them in his peripherals. It was as much privacy as he could give them when they were all crammed together like this. Unless he buried his head between his knees he was always going to have them in his sight somehow and he was oddly unwilling to take his eyes off of their desperate embrace. Jealously rose hot in the back of his throat and he pushed it back savagely.

So what if he himself couldn’t hold anyone like that? He was working on it. Minato had been thrilled to have him back in the workshop – well, thrilled to have his mind and his hands, he wasn’t entirely sure if such a chronically polite man was capable of showing distaste if Tobirama’s presence did bother him. Whether or not others were happy to see him was not the point, though. The point was that Hashirama had given him a new angle to look at the problem from and he very much intended to use Minato’s equipment to continue his research. Some way, somehow, he very much intended to be _normal_ again.

If he had to give up what made him super just to hold Madara’s hand without hurting him, well, that was a sacrifice he had always been willing to make.


	3. Chapter 3

The diversion team must have hauled ass on the roads because somehow they made it back before the extraction team despite having left the government facilities after and all of them were waiting just inside the barrier to run alongside their truck asking questions. Asuma broke away to fetch Tsunade for medical exams. Touka leapt up and clung to the side of the vehicle while it trundled towards the parking bays, hanging her head in the window to make her report to Hashirama on what all had happened on their end of business.

When they finally rolled to a stop and someone reached out to take the now sleeping Obito from his lap Kakashi flinched, fighting back the urge to bite those reaching fingers. Protective instinct rose up like a roaring tide but he fought them back, if only just barely, with the logical argument that he was no healer. Tsunade could help his friend in ways Kakashi could not and in order to get to her someone else would have to carry him. Captivity had weakened them both. Before they had been healthy boys for their age and kept up a good exercise regimen like everyone else here in the compound; now Kakashi would be lucky to hold up his own weight long enough to make it inside. Just thinking about carrying Obito’s weight on top of that made his knees wobble unhappily.

Forcing his hands to stay loose and not fist with irrational anger, he scrambled to stand up and follow after the person’s back, finally realizing that it was only Hashirama. Hashirama would never hurt them. When his feet touched the ground he cringed at the pitted feel of asphalt but it had been months – Weeks? Years? – since he’d worn shoes so he pattered along without pause, eyes locked on the boy he refused to let get away from him again now that they were both free.

Some of the people he passed tried to talk to him and he was sure he would later feel bad for ignoring them even if right now they seemed so very unimportant. Or rather less important than following the bobbing head of shaggy hair in front of him. It wasn’t until they stepped inside the main building, cooled by central air with soft carpet soothing his toes, that he was finally distracted by an unforgettable voice screaming his name. His eyes jerked away from Obito for the first time and he whirled just in time to see Rin skittering on her heels to prevent herself from crashing headlong in to him at full speed.

It still hurt quite a bit when she made impact.

Kakashi didn’t care.

“You’re alive,” she whispered hoarsely in his ear, arms wrapping around him like a blanket made of _home_. “You’re okay! Was that Obito!? You’re both here; I can’t believe it!” Pulling away only to take his face between both hands, Rin pressed their foreheads together where he could see the fat tears spilling over to roll down her cheeks. “God I was so worried! Don’t you ever do something like that again! Never!”

“Not my fault we got captured,” he mumbled around the lump in his throat. His friend gave a watery laugh that almost sounded more like a sob.

“I know. I’m sorry. Gods, I can’t believe you’re okay.”

Kakashi shifted, pressing deeper in to her. “Mostly in one piece, too,” he joked weakly. Her eyes flickered to the bandages covering his one eye but, thankfully, she chose not to ask at that moment. Though he knew everyone would find out what happened to them at some point he wasn’t quite ready to go over the gory details just yet. It was too soon. Tomorrow and the next day and the next week might be too soon. He really hoped one of the rescue teams would be able to pass on what had happened because just thinking about going in to detail about the horrors they went through was causing bile to rise up in the back of his throat until Rin sank her fingers in to his greasy hair and held on just a little more tightly.

The two of them stood in silent reunion for a couple of minutes, basking in the presence of a beloved friend they hadn’t been sure they would ever see again, but eventually the anxiety began to claw at him again and Kakashi extracted himself as gently as he could, took Rin’s hand, and insisted they go find Obito. Unsurprisingly, she agreed without fight. They found him laid out on an examination table that had Kakashi’s hackles up on sheer reflex, heart leaping in to his throat, pulse thundering in his veins, palms instantly clammy as he took in the all too familiar visuals before him. This was a bad place. Bright lights and cold tables. Instinct told him that this was a place of pain and adrenaline surged through him, urging him to flee. It took Rin squeezing his hand and calling his name softly to break him out of the memory and realize that this was not a surgical bay, this was not a place they would be torn open and experimented on. This was somewhere that Obito would get better. A room that he had been in a hundred times before to have plasters slapped over scraped knees or his temperature taken when he caught a cold.

Nevertheless, he still very much hoped he could convince them that this was _not_ where Obito should wake up first. Without a doubt his first reaction would be just the same as Kakashi’s had been if not exponentially worse.

Tsunade eyed him warily when he approached, not quite happy to have him in her space yet not quite willing to speak against his right to be here. It was hard to tell whether she was pleased to see either of them. Not much made Tsunade happy these days other than a deep bottle of liquor. But she didn’t send him away so Kakashi offered her a thankful nod and did his best to stay quiet while she continued on with her examination. Their little group of rebels didn’t actually have anyone with a proper super healing ability, only Tsunade and her medical research or Hashirama with his ability to make things grow. It was teamwork between the two of them that truly helped; Hashirama’s power was only useful if he knew precisely where to use it.

Her examination felt like it took a hundred years but that might have had something to do with the way Kakashi’s very bones felt chilled here in a room that too closely resembled his worst nightmares. When it was finally over it was more relief than he could ever express to know that the worst of Obito’s problems at the moment were simply the usual expected effects of imprisonment: dehydration, malnutrition, and a possible addiction to the drugs he’d been given, although they wouldn’t know the last one until he woke up. Kakashi himself had escaped that particular symptom only because of a natural resistance to whatever cocktails they forced him to consume. Nothing super, just good genes and luck.

She did insist on giving him a brief checkup as well, an experience that left him colder than ever and shaking in Rin’s arms. He wished someone had thought to make sure he got looked at by Hashirama first. Tsunade’s bedside manner wasn’t something he could really fault her for but it definitely made him uncomfortable to see so little emotion on her face while she poke and prodded.

In contrast, waiting at Obito’s bedside was a much more pleasant experience than he had been expecting. They were moved to a different room entirely with a perfectly medium temperature and warm décor on the walls. Having Rin there with him filled what would have been empty hours of loneliness and calmed the panic waiting in his belly, ready to spill over at a moment’s notice just as it had been since it had first sunk in that they were finally free. He wondered how long it would take until he stopped being afraid every single moment that they would be forced to go back to that horrible place somehow.

Probably years. Fear was like that: pervasive, long reaching. He had seen it in enough of his fellow supers to know that trauma wasn’t something that went away overnight. Tsunade was a perfect example of that.

At some point Kakashi found himself curled in between Obito’s prone form and Rin’s steady heartbeat, all three of them pressed together on a bed that was really only made for one. Their warmth seeped through the edges of his residual panic until slowly he began to realize that his body was crying out for certain needs. He was hungry. And he was tired. It was strange to feel such normal things without the usual layer of despair fogging his every thought, strange enough that he almost didn’t notice until he felt fingers threading gently through his hair and he realized that his eyes were closed, though he didn’t remember when he had closed them.

“Sleep,” Rin’s voice whispered. “I’ll watch over you.”

It wasn’t her power that sent him down in to dreams, although that did help to relax him enough that he was able to reach for the darkness. Rather it was knowing that all three of them were here, alive and free, together again after too long apart, it was that comforting knowledge that put a smile on his face as he fell in to the first good rest he’d had in months.

For the first time since Hashirama had entered his cell he began to accept that everything was going to be okay.

-

Debriefing with the other teams and the members of their little resistance group who had stayed behind took longer than Tobirama would have liked. He’d been the one to beg for a chance to prove himself but he hadn’t anticipated the sour taste it would leave in his mouth to go back to those places again. Just knowing he had walked in to one of the government’s facilities under his own power yet again left him desperate for a shower. Maybe two.

As it was, he was forced to remain in the debriefing room for well over an hour while a member from both of today’s teams went over everything that happened and the group at large decided what their next course of action should be. He spent most of the hour pressed as far in to the back corner as possible, folded in to make his presence as small as it could be, still unwilling to draw attention to himself when he knew it would only upset certain people. Not everyone had forgiven him for his choices just yet. It wasn’t until Madara finished relaying the information that some of the facilities might still have latent explosives in the walls that he turned and spotted Tobirama tucked away. The scowl that touched his brows was both fearsome and quite cute.

“It was Tobirama that warned us about it,” Madara stated loudly, pushing on to speak over the groans from several people. “Look, this is important information. This could be crucial to avoiding further injury, preventing panic, or even stopping unnecessary attacks _caused_ by panic. He didn’t have to share that information but he did. He could have played dumb like he didn’t know any more about it than we did. But he did share it with us. I get that some of you are still pretty pissed off”–his eyes slid over Mito but paused on Izuna with a pointed glare–“but you need to get over yourself. He has proven where his loyalties really lie. You don’t have to like him but you do have to work with him and for that we need a certain amount of trust.”

“Easy for you to say. We all know what you really want from him,” Izuna grumbled, just loud enough that it was obvious he’d meant for his statement to be heard.

Deep in his corner, Tobirama sighed and closed his eyes against the anger that set fire licking up the back of Madara’s arms. No matter how hard he tried he felt his cheeks warm with embarrassment and he very much wished to be anywhere else at the moment. Well, anywhere within reason.

It wasn’t exactly a surprise when Madara immediately began yelling but it was still mortifying. Even more so because Tobirama wasn’t sure he even deserved half of the credit Madara gave to him nor half the trust. After almost a full ten minutes went by of pointless angry shouting, rehashing arguments that had already been made a dozen times each, Hashirama waved the rest of them off to declare the meeting over. There was no point in trying to continue after that sort of distraction.

Tobirama might not have been gifted with the power of super speed like Minato but he still managed to be the first one out of the room, halfway down the hall before anyone else managed to darken the doorway. Only when he had made it around several corners and down a flight of stairs did he feel like he could breathe again.

He would go if he thought there was anywhere else that was safe for him to be, if he thought Madara and Hashirama wouldn’t track him down and drag his ass back here kicking and screaming. But if he could find somewhere, if he could avoid their reaching fingers and go in to hiding where the government couldn’t find him either, would that not be better for everyone? He couldn’t help but think so. Eventually he was going to run out of little insider tidbits to remember and in that moment he would stop being useful to them, at which time the voices of those who would rather he had never come back would assuredly grow louder as time continued to pass.

And he would continue to listen to them.

Only because they had a point though, a point achingly similar to the one Madara had just been trying to bring up as a mark in his favor. If his comrades couldn’t find it in them to trust him again then the harmony of their organization would suffer and battles could go awry so easily. He knew that he would lay down his life in an instant for anyone here but if they refused to watch his back or even if they refused to trust that he would watch theirs then how were they supposed to work together? No one would be doing what they were supposed to be doing if everyone was distracted with this ridiculous drama.

Drama that could be solved if he were gone. Or if he agreed to stay back here and hide in the base for the rest of his life while all of his loved ones were out there risking their lives fighting for the right just to live the way they were born to be. Even thinking about that kind of empty and anxious existence made him shudder. He’d never been someone who handled inaction well, nor boredom. Only the gods knew what kind of chaos would eventually erupt if he tried to force himself down in to a quiet little box like that.

Tobirama closed his eyes and leaned his shoulder against one side of the hallway, bowing his head, for the moment too exhausted to even take another step towards the safety of his own rooms. For five years he had longed for home, spent his every waking moment working towards the solution that would let him crawl back to the place where he thought he belonged. Now that he was finally here he felt nothing less than torn.

“Hey,” Madara’s voice snapped him back to reality. His head jerked up and he half turned to see the other man standing at the base of the stairs with a guilty expression. “I’m sorry. I know it makes you uncomfortable when I start ‘defending your honor’ or whatever like that.”

“Because he’s right. I was the one who left instead of sticking around and trying to do my research here. He’s right not to trust me.” Tobirama dropped both shoulders back against the wall and lifted his hands to scrub tired at his face. His lips turned down from a frown to a scowl when Madara stepped closer to reach for him, stopping just short of touching his wrists.

For a moment they both awkwardly hung there, Madara’s intentions obvious and his reasons for stopping equally so. Then the older man sighed and dropped his hands.

“You did what you thought was best. Back then we didn’t have the facilities that we do now.”

“When will you stop making my excuses for me?” Tobirama asked.

“When you start seeing them as reasons, not excuses.” Madara’s eyes bored in to him until Tobirama was forced to look away, uncomfortable at the moment with the level of trust he could see there.

How could he possibly deserve that trust when the man couldn’t even touch him without being hurt? Even now ice crystals were gathering around his fingers and crawling up the back of his wrists like stylish gloves but he didn’t bother to shake them away, not when he was this close to Madara. It wasn’t as though a few droplets of water would hurt the man, barely worth the notice really, but he hated the hissing sounds it made and the little curls of steam that rose in protest of their powers meeting and clashing, a visible and audible reminder of the impossible chasm keeping them apart.

Madara stepped closer, his body tense and ready to leap away even as his expression clearly showed how badly he wanted to lean in closer. One hand came up to trace the air around the shape of Tobirama’s face.

“I have faith in you,” he said quietly. “That you decide your actions based on what you think is right and that you _will_ find an answer for…for this.”

“Please don’t hurt yourself,” Tobirama pleaded with him, his voice soft and his tone much weaker than he had intended. Almost worse than the pain of knowing he couldn’t have this was the pain of wanting it. Moments like this when neither of them could resist the pull of possibilities, these were the moments that hurt the most, when he realized there was a very real chance that he might go mad in his search for answers.

He definitely understood why some people fell from the path of light and turned to villainy despite the best of intentions.

“You don’t think I’m quick enough? Just one little kiss. There and gone, what’s the harm?” Madara was grinning at him, trying hard to keep their spirits light, but no matter how much he wanted to feel the same Tobirama could only concentrate on the thickening ice covering his own fingers.

“Madara, you’re already shaking,” he pointed out reluctantly.

And it was true. Madara’s body was giving every sign that he should back off before his core temperature reached a point too low for safety. The heat he always gave off was nearly enough to make Tobirama begin to sweat and he had to force down his own instincts to cool the air around him in response; the last thing he needed right now was to accidentally hurt someone who meant so much to him.

With reluctance painted in every line of his body Madara took a single half step backwards but his eyes lingered in such a way that left the ghost sensation of soft touches against Tobirama’s skin, nearly drawing a gasp from his lips. If he were a man of lesser discipline he would have followed that invitation and stepped forward to press them together for the intimacy they both so obviously craved. But then, if he were a man of lesser discipline, he would have already left to seek help once again down even the darkest of avenues.

“Someday,” Madara rumbled quietly. “It won’t be like this forever.”

“It’ll feel like it,” Tobirama said. He huffed when Madara tutted at him.

“Always so pessimistic.”

Letting the man smile and think his words only a light tease was easier, kinder, than telling him the truth. Tobirama memorized the light in the dark eyes before him and thought that if he let hope guide his steps then the world could only pray in the smoking ruins he would leave behind him.


End file.
